Malik
(6/24/13)
I think it would be easy
to pick on Microsoft again this week. Yeah, I guess this is turning
into a weekly posting, but it might become more frequent if I have
the time...something I am not in large supply of lately.
So, yeah...Microsoft
pulled a 180 on all of their unexplained plans. I said unexplained
and not "stupid" for a reason. Some of their plans were actually
pretty smart, although the 24 hour check-in is one I will call
stupid with much confidence. However, the plans were a bit
unexplained to the masses. Microsoft failed to realize the most
simple fact out in the world of commerce. They want our money, and
they are a large faceless corporation. This means we, as consumers,
are likely to not take any new ideas as a good thing and instead we
will look for the ways this faceless entity will potentially screw
us over. That is the fact of commerce when you are not some
Mom-N-Pop operation.
I think Microsoft, when
they decided to go the Sony route on DRM, still failed on one
important fact. The price of the XOne will be $100 more than the
PS4. We should all know why when you look at how the specs for the
two consoles are nearly identical (except a touch of better RAM in
the PS4). It's $100 more due to the Kinect that is in the box.
However, why has Microsoft continued to not explain why the Kinect
is really needed. No, I don't mean showing how it will read my
emotional state, which I actually do not want from a console. When I
get pissed off at bad controls or a cheap boss, I don't want my
console to know about it...it's bad enough when my wife or my
roommate see me lose my shit to a game. I also know it will allow
for voice commands, but I had enough trouble with that on Mass
Effect 3 (360) that I had to turn off the Kinect features. Having my
center channel right below my Kinect made for a lot of random
actions from my crew when the game mistook its own noises with me
shouting for Tali to use a power for no damned reason.
So, what can the Kinect
really do that is not optional or aggravating? What will it do to
make games good? What will it do that I cannot simply use a
controller to do? What can it do to remain important, unlike the
WiiU controller that seems to not even be an afterthought anymore in
WiiU game design? If it cannot be justified as a required feature,
then it is not something I care about, and especially not something
I want to justify with an extra $100.
As for the other
features...I mean I am moving away from consoles now that I have a
very powerful PC that has all of the same multiple platform games
and a perfectly usable 360 controller attached. I can stream games
and record them on my PC (XSplit is awesome). I even streamed the
entirety of The Last Story for the Wii back in December without a
hitch using my PC. I am comfortable, for the first new console
generation in my entire life, of only looking at one console. The
PS4, at a cheaper price with many of the same features and similar
functionality, looks like the pick for me. Maybe in time this will
change, since console generations don't always end in the way they
start (ask Wii and PS3 about this), but for now I can only go with
what I am being shown and promised. Sony is promising a similar
experience to last generation, but at a cheaper price and with the
ability to buy games from a mobile app (which looks sweet, as I am a
Steam addict on my Android phone). The WiiU promised bad marketing
and failure. The XOne is promising a Kinect being required for no
good reason and a lack of a clear plan as shown by Microsoft's
ability to flip-flop on DRM so damned quickly.
Microsoft, I want to
love you in the realm of consoles. The same goes for Nintendo.
However, both of you don't seem to want to be loved. Time will tell,
and time can change things. Hopefully Microsoft allows time to
change them for the better.
Malik |